When I first saw Dead Party, I thought, "This looks like a fun game to play around Halloween." Then, when I actually started the game, I thought, "This game looks awfully familiar."
Two and a half decades after the game first released, we have Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered available on modern consoles, and this title is absolutely a blast from the past.
Sometimes a game will hit your feed that is completely unexpected. That is the reaction I had when I discovered Map Map - A Game About Maps (which I'll refer to as Map Map from here on out). It is a puzzle exploration game where you take the role of a young cartographer setting out on a relaxing journey to many unknown islands.
Welcome to an adventure across the land of Raoah! Help guide Hira on this metroidvania quest across a land that is being choked by corruption. Can you help Hira return peace to Raoah with the help of the companions he meets along the way, or will the world fall into desolation? Only you can help out in Fallen Tear: The Ascension!
When The Embers Wake is a third-person narrative walking simulator about grief where the narrator, Emmie, is working through the loss of her mother. This struggle is portrayed through a red panda and mother panda.
In OVER REQUIEMZ Yuhiru is thrown into the castle of Oz and is immediately accused of trying to assassinate the King and shoved into the dungeon. Not only is she treated like a criminal...
Today we’re looking at what has rapidly become an absolute favorite in the open-world RPG genre for me. An interesting story, memorable NPCs, stunning visuals, and a setting absolutely dripping with flavor, Dread Delusion sets its tone immediately and sticks with it.
...and I have been playing NHL games since. It didn't matter whether it was EA or another game like 2K in the 2000s; I loved hockey games and still do, but is NHL 27 a step in the right direction?
Nivalis Nights is an experience that gives a strong sense of what a talented team of visionary minds can create. Nivalis Nights crafts a living breathing painting of neon basked splendor with a futuristic new art style of game that is both beautiful and urban futuristic.
This week, we’re spotlighting songs that could be considered “the other famous title” from their respective soundtracks or franchises. Whether they’re underrated, overrated, or just-right-rated, these sibling tracks deserve your love just as much as their more iconic counterparts.
Streets of Rage 2 | Dreamer
🎵 Sibling to: “Go Straight”
Another dance-floor banger from the Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack. “Dreamer” is insanely catchy and puts you in the perfect mood to punch your way through waves of bad dudes. Yuzo Koshiro, take a bow—again.
This haunting cover by Midge Ure is one of my favorite songs in general, not just within the MGS universe. Even outside the game’s context, the track carries a mysterious, broken quality that fits The Phantom Pain's themes of identity and chaos all too well.
This track is the audio equivalent of the phrase “harbinger of doom.”
I often think of that scene from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where the choir sings “Double Trouble.” Now imagine a choir of Overwatch soldiers being led by an Elite unit into a warped version of that performance. That’s what this sounds like.
A chiptune masterpiece that nails the vibe of retro action-platformers. It’s energetic, atmospheric, and perfectly supports The Lost City stage. Like the rest of Shovel Knight’s soundtrack, this one’s a heartfelt tribute to the 8-bit golden era.
Also composed by M.O.O.N., “Dust” doesn’t quite get the same love as “Hydrogen”—but it absolutely should. Where “Hydrogen” is catchy and pulse-pounding, “Dust” leans into cinematic storytelling. Less club track, more slow-motion breakdown. Still hypnotic.
Good morning everyone and welcome back to our Tabletop and Board Game
review series! For your pleasure this morning we have one of the
latest box sets from Level 99 Games with their latest inclusion into
their EXCEED Fighting System with Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight.
For a bit of background into the EXCEED Fighting System, it’s a 1v1
tabletop fighting game in which two players draw cards for moves
instead of mashing controllers at insane speeds like you would see in
the global Street Fighter and Dragon Ball tournaments. Being provided
with the Shovel Knight Hope Box and Shovel Knight Table Mat by Level
99 Games, the main box contains four fighters with Shovel/Shield
Knight acting as one, Mole Knight, Tinker Knight and Propeller
Knight.
Each character has their own uniqueness which makes trying them all
out paramount if you're planning on both winning with and against
them. Having opened the box with my brother, and our unboxing video
is right below, what we both appreciated is that there are cards
provided in each deck to be exchanged with the opponent so that they
can see all of the special moves that a character has as part of
their deck. Also part of that video are our first two hands as we
worked to figure out the rules, buuuuuuut, let's just say that we
over complicated it so while our video is right below, we also
included a link back to Level
99 Game's website with the 8 Minute video quickly
explaining the rules. Basically we just had to realize that we were
only allowed to do ONE thing at a time, not try to do multiple...
once we had it going though? Damn it was fun.
For the main Shovel Knight Hope Box itself, everything comes in a
hard box in which there's no fear of this thing collapsing if
something is put on top of it. Inside of that box are the four main
decks that each represent a character, four boxes for each of those
decks in order to store them individually, spacers for a field if you
don't have a table mat already, the rule book, an erratum and an
advertisement flyer for other products.
Also given to us was a Shovel Knight themed table mat to use instead
of the provided spacers which itself has the spacers built in.
Alongside the playing field are both the player's total amount of
possible hit points and a space for each character's gauges that
increase once specific objectives have been met. The mat is fairly
high in quality and is made from the same material as those really
nice large mouse pads that you put between the table and your
keyboard / mouse.
Taking it from the top in regards to the gameplay and the cards
though, the cards are all fairly solid so there's no fear of them
tearing from being used a few times. If anything, these are the types
of cards that you may not even need to look into putting into
plastics until many gameplay sessions down the road. In regards to
each deck, what’s really neat is the cohesiveness of the designs in
relation to one another. What I mean by this is that all of the
standard moves all have “standard art” of a golden and silver
knight dueling while the character specific cards feature that hero.
These are the abilities that appear on the swappable hero ability
cards so that you can work some sort of counters into your possible
strategy.
For the gameplay itself, the “board” is set up with nine spaces
in which one player starts on space #3 while the other starts on
space #7. From there, you’ll be moving back and forth, or even past
your opponent to land hits, block hits, dodge hits or prepare for
your next moves by drawing more cards. You can only have seven cards
in your hands, but it's easy to go through them so it’s good that
in your list of things to do in a turn you can draw at least two
more.
Turns play out fairly quickly. Going in turn of advantage, which can
be switched around through certain actions, each turn player decide
what they want to do:
Prepare (draw a card)
Move (forwards
or backwards on the battlefield)
Change Cards
EXCEED (name of
the game and unlock more powerful hero abilities)
Reshuffle (can
only force this one a game, the rest are naturally done once the
deck is empty)
Boost (Use a
card’s boost ability which is generally a temporary stat boost),
and finally
Perform a
strike (attack)
Where Marc and I got confused at first is we thought there was an
order. Nah, you just pick an action and do what is required, then
your opponent does the same. The only time that you’re both truly
involved is during a strike in which your opponent can defend which
has its own set of interesting rules.
To perform a strike, you simply need to place a card face down and be
able to perform the actions such as your target being in initial
range. From there, both players flip their cards for the attack and
the defense and it goes in order of which card has the higher speed.
This means that even while you were launching an attack, it could
backfire spectacularly. On each card, there are a possible
combinations of Range, Attack Power, Armor and Guard. Range for some
is brutal being able to hit anyone with an attack from two to four
spaces away. If your opponent is up close though? It won’t work.
Attack Power is the amount of damage that will be dealt to an enemy’s
health bar. Amor reduces the amount of damage taken but it isn’t
always present. Finally, there’s guard and this can make or break a
Strike.
The Guard stat is a number that if the Attack Power is higher than,
there’s a guard break and then the defending character will not be
able to perform their move. With a total of thirty hitpoints on the
line, this can go by quickly if you’re not dealing what you’re
receiving, especially if you’re taking damage on both your turn and
your opponent’s turn. It’s honestly very well designed and I
would be surprised if it didn’t eventually make its way over to the
video game realm where the game would take care of a lot of the math
as it has an amazing base for it.
Now here’s possibly the biggest thing about the EXCEED Fighting
System that makes it so damned cool. Not only does each character
have their own abilities, but they have their own very uniqueness
that makes them different to play while on the board. For Shovel
Knight, Shield Knight can be moved forward in order to block moves or
reduce damage but Shield cannot be attacked personally. For Propeller
Knight, they can deal extra damage in accordance to specific range
distances from their opponent.
Mole Knight has a burrow ability that allows them to retreat back to
their burrow which works very well for guerilla tactics as a lot of
the abilities have a fair amount of range too. Finally, as part of
the Hope Box, Tinker Knight starts with half health but once it’s
over they can get a new set of health and become three spaces large
and use their boost abilities alongside their normal ones. What’s
really nice as an addition for Tinker Knight is that you can either
play with two cards that go side by side to your character, or, use
an already pre-assembled trifold so you only need to move one card
instead of three.
And this is just one part of the Shovel Knight season. There’s also
the Shadow Box with Plague Knight, Polar Knight, Treasure Knight and
King Knight. Add in two extra solo fighter sets for both the Specter
Knight and the Enchantress and there’s plenty of 1v1 versus that
can be had at the same time with plenty of people at the table or
simply by two people for different combinations of fighters from one
game to the next. Finally, as Shovel Knight is Season 4 for content
and the upcoming BlazBlue is Season 5, every set is designed to work
together so Shovel Knight can go up against Ryu from Street Fighter
if you want to. It’s a series that is designed to work together and
make the first sets just as useful as the latest sets.
So overall the EXCEED Fighting System is a well designed table top
experience. Adding in that the quality of the boxes, cards and
instruction manual being durable and nice to look at and the Shovel
Knight Hope Box was more than a pleasure to play through multiple
games. Now? Now it’s time to go pick up a few other sets while
waiting for the BlazBlue season later this year!
There is a lot to like about our new batch of Memorable Music selections. We get a few PC entries, but a couple of console ones as well that help us span retro titles to more recent entries. I have to say that the Sega Genesis one in particular put a smile on my face.
I would like to start this off by declaring 'Game of the Year', and finish it off with 'what a year that was'.
In all seriousness though, this is going to be a contender for my Game of the Year. It might not be new to you, but this is the first time that I’ve played Shovel Knight. Having been released on just about all the consoles and the PC, it feels as though the best was saved for last. the Xbox One provides Battletoads. Sorry Kratos, but these guys were one of the best parts of my childhood.
Shovel Knight is a love letter to classic gaming. Thankfully it manages to be fresh, taking current gaming conventions and playing them out against all kinds of classic NES throwbacks. The end result is a charming, challenging experience that would have been at home on any number of consoles over the years, but still feels perfect on the PlayStation 4 as well.
Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and PC owners have had the privilege of playing Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight for a little less than a year now. As of a week ago, PlayStation platform owners have been able to sink their collective teeth into the game and see what all the hype has been about. The wait hasn't been for naught, however, as cross-play, cross-buy, and the addition of a Kratos (from God of War fame) boss fight are included in the digital package, meaning whichever PlayStation device you play Shovel Knight on, you're bound to have a blast.
Shovel Knight, by Yacht Club Games, is a game made in 8 bit style, that doesn't take itself too seriously, and excels at it. Instead of regaling you with myriad shovel puns, though, I decided to take the high road and stick purely to reviewing this awesome title... So let us dig in.
